On Tuesday, May 17, the US expanded its involvement in the war in Syria, and for the first time since the war began in 2011, US F-16 fighter-bombers bombed radical Syrian rebels fighting Iranian, Syrian and Hizballah forces near Aleppo, debkafile’s military and intelligence sources say in an exclusive report.

Intelligence sources in Syria and Lebanon said Friday that Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah strongly suspects that US and Russian special forces assassinated Mustafa Bader Al-din, the commander of Hizballah forces in Syria, in a joint operation-despite the public allegation against amorphous rebels.

The plot the youngest Assad brother, Gen. Maher hatched to displace President Bashar Assad was betrayed by one or two of the allies he sought to back him up, Moscow or Tehran. The president relieved him of his duties pending a decision on his future.

US and Russian bombardments of ISIS targets have petered out in Syria, heavily outnumbered by intense Russian sorties for wiping out rebel resistance. The US-led operation to destroy ISIS in Libya is also on ice, as former Libyan generals join up with the Islamic State.

The secret Obama-Putin deal on a political solution for Syria that was reached on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Antalya has radically changed and intensified Russia’s air strike tactics in the last 24 hours. For the first time, Russian air force planes took off for Syria Tuesday, Nov. 17 from home bases.

The Sinai branch of ISIS could not have performed alone for blowing up the Russian airliner. It was backed by the spreading, multinational Islamic State organization, like the Tunisian attack five months earlier.

After deposing two president, Egypt’s military junta has no problem in ousting a third. The generals are watching El-Sisi closely since terrorists were able to down the Russian airliner over Sinai and his failure to drum up international support for his campaign against ISIS.

No cause has yet been established for the Russian-made Antonov Ant-12’s crash-landing on the east bank of the Nile River 800 m short of Juba international airport in South Sudan Wednesday, Nov. 4. Some 40 people were believed killed on board and on the ground, although there appear to be two survivors. But none of the 224 passengers and crew aboard the Metrojet Flight 9268 Airbus 321 survived the airliner’s crash in central Sinai Saturday, Oct. 31. Russian forensic examinations of the victims’ remains show evidence of an explosion in the plane.